Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Amy Nigh

Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Philosophy

Committee Chair

Deborah Tollefsen

Committee Member

David Henderson

Committee Member

Michael Monahan

Committee Member

Shaun Gallagher

Abstract

This dissertation explores the epistemology of disinformation. Looking specifically at fake news and conspiracy theory, each chapter contributes to what might be considered the overarching question: what features of our information ecosystem facilitate the spread of disinformation? The approach to answering this question focuses on the roles and importance of history and historical method, the concept of power, and borrows methodological insights from neighboring disciplines to assess and diagnose the contemporary infosphere. My approach departs from major trends in contemporary research in social epistemology on two accounts. First, I argue against the necessity to concretize a definition for meaningful social analysis. Asking probing questions about why disinformation spreads can be done absent agreement on a definition. Second, I reject a sole focus on psychological explanations for understanding why disinformation spreads. An earnest consideration of the larger epistemic context within which disinformation spreads must be taken into account. This dissertation is divided into four thematically related chapters. The first chapter retraces the history of the philosophical engagement with the notion of ‘conspiracy theory’ to recover key ingredients that are missing from contemporary discussions. The second chapter explores how insights gleaned from Feminist Standpoint Theory can help us understand why fake news spreads. The third chapter interrogates existing conceptualizations of echo chambers and offers an updated account that features a discussion of power relations. And finally, the fourth chapter diagnoses the problem of disinformation as a problem with an information ecosystem that promotes epistemic heteronomy.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.”

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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